White Papers

Recent White Papers

Summary Highly efficient cogeneration and district heating systems have a significant potential for primary energy savings and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through the utilization of a waste heat and renewable energy sources. These potentials are still highly underutilized in most European ...

Distribution Grid Locational Performance Modeling: Developing a Foundational Integrated Modeling Tool For Regulators - Proof of concept and prototype Summary This report presents the results of the first phase of a multi-phased project to develop an Integrated Modeling Tool for Regulators (IMT) that ...

Summary The high penetration of distributed energy resources (DERs) on modern distribution systems introduces intermittent power generation, stochastic system operating conditions, and bidirectional power flows that impact the system responses to various types of disturbances and may pose challenges ...

Summary The Building Resiliency Task Force Report provides 33 actionable proposals for making New York buildings and residents better prepared for the next extreme weather event. Convened in 2013 at the request of the City of New York following Superstorm Sandy, 200-plus task force members led ...

Summary The European energy ecosystem is currently undergoing massive transformation. The European Union is taking a leadership role in decarbonizing its power sector. This requires deploying significant volumes of renewable power generation, which has implications for the entire energy ecosystem. ...

Summary A detailed study commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute and conducted by the Brattle Group finds that as the U.S. electric industry continues to be transformed from a heavy reliance on coal and nuclear to more variable energy sources, grid operators should be focused on a key reliability ...

This paper was published in Applied Energy, Volume 208 and made available online October 23, 2017. Summary Efficiently utilizing energy that is currently being wasted can significantly increase energy efficiency of the system, as well as reduce the carbon footprint. In hot climates with large ...

Summary Conventional wisdom has long held that the most cost-effective and reliable source of energy is the utility grid — arguably humanity’s largest and most complex machine. Although many hospitals and other critical facilities would prefer to control their destinies by generating their own power, ...

Summary The Massachusetts Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard (APS) is a mandatory market-based program which requires that a fraction of the electricity sold by the state's Retail Electricity Suppliers be generated using Alternative Energy technologies. Among the APS eligible technologies in Massachusetts, ...

Summary A microgrid is a regionally limited energy system of distributed energy resources, consumers and optionally storage. A microgrid optimizes the benefits of distributed generation including power quality and reliability, sustainability and economic benefits. The most important feature of a microgrid ...